


Late Night Study Session

by bluemadridista



Category: K-pop, Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Library, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Mentioned Son Hyunwoo | Shownu, Monsta X Bingo, Pre-Relationship, librarian!kihyun, librarian!wonho, library manager!shownu, showki is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 03:52:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10153046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemadridista/pseuds/bluemadridista
Summary: Hoseok is a librarian (well, circ clerk, but...) at the university library where Hyungwon is studying until the middle of the night. He gets to be Hyungwon's knight in shining armor when the latter thinks he spots a ghost!





	

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"Ha ha! You’re stuck here until 3 AM!" Kihyun teased as he packed up his things to leave the library.

Hoseok glowered at him from his post behind the massive reference desk. It was shortly after 10 PM and he had only just arrived to work. On weekends when the university library stayed open late for the really dedicated students (or massive procrastinators), someone must be the unfortunate one to man the fort until 3 AM. "The only reason you're not stuck here is because you're dating the manager," he sniped.

"Oh, yes. I'm going to go home now to my wonderful manager boyfriend while you are stuck here watching over all the lame students studying in the middle of the night."

"There's no one here," Hoseok grumbled. "Can't you call Hyunwoo and ask if we can close early?"

Kihyun pretended to mull that option over for a moment to give Hoseok some false hope before he said, "Nope."

Hoseok grimaced, and waved him on. "Get out."

Kihyun pranced out the front door, his backpack slung over his shoulder. Being a graduate student and dating the boss definitely had its perks.

Hoseok settled into the comfortable desk chair – thankful for that positive note, at least – and opened the web browser on the staff computer. He may as well get some research done while he was stuck here.

After twenty minutes of pouring over the school's free databases, he closed the browser and wiped his tired eyes. He was not cut out for the late shift. How could partying into the wee hours of the morning on Friday be so much easier than sitting in front of a computer screen at work?

He stood up, stretched a little, and glanced around the massive room. He was sure there was not another soul in the building. Groaning, he walked into the back room to make a cup of coffee with the staff's one-cup coffee maker. He walked back out to the desk in time to see a tall boy with headphones striding past the reference desk. 

He had seen the guy many times before on campus, and in the library. He studied – and slept – at the tables in the back several nights a week. He often wondered his name, but had never had the courage to strike up a conversation. The guy kept to himself, and who really wanted to be bothered by the librarian anyway?

He settled into his seat, steaming coffee in hand, and watched as the guy sauntered through the building to the back. He could barely see him as he slumped into one of the arm chairs with a built-in desk on the arm.

He shouldn't be straining to see random guys anyway, he told himself as he took a timid sip of his coffee. He cursed silently when it burnt the tip of his tongue and set it aside to cool. He stared at the computer's background wallpaper – an image of two puppies laying on a pile of open books. It wouldn't have been his choice for background image, but the circ clerks in the morning loved it, and he wasn't bothered enough to change it.

He opened the web browser again, and navigated to the database list. The alphabetical list hadn't even finished loading before he was typing "Netflix" into the address bar. 

Fifteen minutes later, he was enjoying lukewarm coffee and subbed anime on mute.

He was down three cups of coffee and his eyes were bloodshot when Netflix started to get judgy. "Are you still watching _Black Butler_?"

"If I wasn't, it wouldn't be on," he muttered, clicking on the screen so Netflix would take him to the next episode.

He glanced at the clock in the bottom right corner of the computer screen to see that Netflix had every right to be judgmental. It was heading toward three in the morning. No one in their right mind should be in the library that late binge watching _Black Butler_ \- or anything else, for that matter.

He almost closed the browser and started to make the normal closing rounds of the building when he remembered it was just him and the tall guy. Everyone else was out having fun or sleeping like normal twenty-somethings.

He considered making the rounds anyway as an excuse to check on the tall guy, but decided immediately that he would be an absolute weirdo if he did so, and stayed put.

After a few minutes his eyelids started to droop.

"HEY!"

The shout was followed by the slam of a hand on the desk. 

Hoseok jumped, and sent the rolling desk chair flying back toward the wall of cabinets behind him. His rear end hit the hard floor with a thud, and he muttered a barely audible curse.

“What are you doing?” he demanded as he hoisted himself up from the floor, rubbing his backside.

“I need your help!”

Hoseok focused in on the tall guy’s face. His bloodshot eyes too wide. His brow wrinkled.

“Help with what? I’m pretty sure finding a book doesn’t require this kind of hysterics.”

“I don’t need help finding a book!” The tall guy planted his palms on the reference desk and leaned toward Hoseok. His voice was barely above a whisper when he spoke again. “There's something... someone.... in here."

The hair on the back of Hoseok's neck stood up, and goosebumps popped up all over his body. They had gone through a thousand safety training videos and seminars about terrorists and men with guns, but he never thought something like that would ever happen. How could it happen? He hadn't seen anyone come in and the only other doors were armed with an emergency alarm that sounded if someone even touched the handle.

"What do you mean?" Hoseok whispered, his hands beginning to tremble. His entire body had gone tight, tensed with fear. 

Hyungwon leaned in closer and whispered, "There's a _ghost_ in here."

Hoseok immediately felt his tense muscles relax and his body appeared to deflate a little. "What are you talking about?" He demanded. He was annoyed that this stupid (cute, but stupid) guy managed to get him worked into a tense frenzy about possibly men with guns lurking around in the middle of the night.

"I saw. A ghost."

Hoseok's eyes narrowed. The guy looked serious. Dead serious. He wasn't playing a prank. He honestly seemed to think there was a spirit lingering around the library. Hoseok had never been one to believe in the existence of spirits, ghosts, whatever. Dead was dead. You didn't just hang around Earth and roam around libraries in the middle of the night after you passed on.

Right?

"I think you're a little confused," Hoseok tried.

"I know what I saw." The kid was so endearingly insistent (and cute, very cute) that Hoseok wanted to agree with every word he said.

"Okay, okay," he said, nodding. "I believe you. Let's go take a look around, okay?"

The tall guy nodded, and Hoseok left his post to tour the library looking for this lost soul that the guy claimed to have seen. "Let me just lock up first. We're two minutes from close anyway." 

Hoseok and his tall, cute patron were on the second floor roaming the second floor fiction when Hoseok ventured to ask, "So... What's your name? I'm Hoseok."

The tall guy who seemed to have calmed down after their inspection of the ground floor returned no ghostly sightings, replied simpled, "Hyungwon."

_ Talkative guy _ , Hoseok thought as they ventured on to the third floor reference section. _Maybe he's still expecting his ghost to pop out of the stacks_.

The third floor was filled with nothing but old books and dust, so they trooped back down the steps to the ground floor.

When they stopped in front of the chair where Hyungwon had left his things, Hoseok decided to take another shot at making conversation with him. "So... I think there are two possibilities here," he began. "One – and this is definitely the most likely..."

Hyungwon regarded him with rapt attention.

"The ghost is hiding from us," Hoseok finished. "Like I said, that one is definitely the most likely. But there is the less likely option that you were studying too hard too late, fell asleep, and dreamed/hallucinated the whole thing. Not very likely, I know, but as a professional, I must consider all the possibilities."

A small smile formed on Hyungwon's face. "I'm sorry," he said sheepishly. "My roommate likes to party until sunrise on the weekends. He even thinks that Sunday is still considered the weekend, because he has a late class on Monday. Anyway, that's why I'm always here studying late. I hope it's not an inconvenience."

Hoseok shook his head. "If you weren't here, I would feel like anidiot sitting at that desk for five hours just overseeing an empty building."

The smile returned to Hyungwon's face. "Thanks for humoring me with the ghost thing. I really think I did hallucinate. I don't even believe in ghosts." He shook his head at the absurdity of the whole thing.

"No problem. Maybe go home and get some rest."

"Party is at my place tonight," Hyungwon said with a shake of his head. "My roommate and five of his friends and drinking and 'rocking out.'" Hyungwon rolled his eyes as he emphasized the latter phrase. "I still have studying to do anyway. You're closed though, right?"

Hoseok bit his lip. Technically, it was almost twenty minutes past closing time. If he didn't leave soon, he might actually get into trouble for being in the building after hours for no good reason. "We are," he finally said. "I have to finish locking up and go."

Hyungwon nodded solemnly and started to gather his things. Hoseok bent to pick up some papers that had fallen – probably when Hyungwon fell asleep on the small desk surface attached to the chair. 

"Say, um," he began as he handed the papers over to an appreciative Hyungwon. "I was going to go for coffee after work and do some studying as well. Would you want to join me?"

Total lie, but he was doing a library patron a favor, so it was okay to lie, right? He did _need_ to study, but he preferred to do his studying during daytime hours whenever possible.

"What? Seriously?"

"Yeah, I mean, sure... Was it rude of me to ask?"

"Oh, no. No. I would like that." Coffee with the hot librarian – yes, please! "My treat though," he added quickly. "To repay you for the little ghost hunt."

Hoseok chuckled, and nodded. "Sure. I usually charge more for my ghost hunting services, but I'll give you a discounted rate this once..."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! Please leave comments and kudos if you enjoyed! They are much appreciated. :))


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